The order of sections on your CV, depending on your situation

A recruiter reads your CV from top to bottom, and often makes up their mind before reaching the end. So the order of your sections is not a matter of taste: whatever comes first should prove you can do the job you want. Here is the standard order, how to vary it for your situation, the order within each section, the headings robots recognise, and how to move everything around without redoing your CV.

The standard order

1. Header: name, phone, email, town, LinkedIn or portfolio link.
2. Headline: the title of the job you want (see the CV headline).
3. Personal statement, or profile: who you are, what you bring, what you are after (see the personal statement).
4. Work experience, from the most recent to the oldest.
5. Education, in the same order, with any certifications.
6. Skills: tools, methods, know-how (see skills on a CV).
7. Languages, with a level.
8. Interests, if they say something specific (see interests on a CV).

This order works for most candidates who already have a track record in their field: what you have done recently is your best evidence, so it comes first, and your education backs it up.

Variations for your situation

The principle stays the same, strongest evidence first; what changes is where that evidence lies.

Details for each case: the student CV, the CV with no experience, the career-change CV and a gap in your CV.

Within each section: most recent first

Experience and education read in reverse chronological order: your current job at the top. It is what recruiters expect, and so does screening software, which relies on the dates: that is the “Readable dates” criterion in the site's check (“Month and year for each job: the robot works out your experience from the dates.”).

A useful exception: when an older job is closer to the target role than your recent ones, don't break the date order; split the section in two. “Accounting experience”, then “Other experience”: each section stays in date order, and the most useful one comes first. It is often the right answer for a career change or a return to a former trade.

Section headings that robots recognise

Screening software files your background using the section headings: that is the “Standard section headings” criterion in the site's check (“The robot files your background using expected headings: Experience, Education, Skills.”). Original headings (“My journey”, “What I can do”, “My toolbox”) look nice and are risky: the robot doesn't know where to file what they contain. Plain headings work everywhere. They are also the ones the site uses when it rewrites your CV in a new template:

• Summary
• Experience
• Education
• Skills
• Languages
• Certifications

Give every heading the same look (same size, same case, same colour): the eye and the robot then pick them out as headings rather than body text.

Two columns: what goes in the side column

In a two-column CV, the main column carries what is read in detail: personal statement, experience, education. The side column holds what is read at a glance: contact details, skills, languages, interests. But a robot sometimes reads the two columns out of order: that is the “Simple layout” criterion (“Multiple columns, tables and text boxes scramble the robot's reading order.”). If you apply through sites that use screening software, a single column remains the safest choice; the guide to CV layout goes through the trade-offs.

What we often see

• The degree at the top of a manager's CV: after years in the job, education moves below experience, in a few lines.
• The profile pushed to the bottom: a personal statement only works if it is read before the rest, right under the headline.
• Skills scattered across “IT”, “Tools”, “Software” and “Know-how”: one section, with groups inside it.
• An order that changes from one section to the next: experience most recent first, education the other way round. Use the same order throughout.

Reorganising your CV without starting over

In “My structure”, the AI copies your CV into sections, without changing the substance. After that, everything happens with no AI and no limit: move a section up or down, switch it from one column to the other, rename it, remove it. You can also ask the AI in one sentence, such as “put education before experience and rename Miscellaneous to Interests”. The CV is redrawn in the look of your original (measured from a PDF, yours to choose otherwise), and you download it as a PDF with a free account. Then run it through the ATS CV check to make sure robots read it in the right order, and through the CV analysis for word-for-word fixes.